Now, Shri Mahavir Bhagavan says to the tenth brahamanda
scholar by name Metarya, that on account of such mutually
contradictory vedic statements, (indian writing pg 135 angie) you
have entertained the doubt whether there is anything like the
next life, the next birth or not?

You believed that there is no next life, No Rebirth on
account of the following reasons:

1. Like the whiteness of a thing, consciousness belongs to
the bhoota-pinda (the elemental body). Just as when a cloth
is destroyed its whiteness is destroyed, similarly when the
body is destroyed consciousness itself is destroyed. When
that is so where remains anything for going to the next
birth?

2. Even though the consciousness may be different from the
body, like the flames emerging from the wood, it can be
transient not permanent. There is therefore no next life.

3. Even if the soul possessing consciousness may be a
permanent thing, and if it is all-pervasive then it cannot go
anywhere. There is therefore no going to next life.

4. In the form of the other worlds, heaven and hell are
not visible at all, then what is 'parloka', the other world?
But now consider.

The proofs supporting the existence of the other world
(Next Life)

1. From the inferences already mentioned, consciousness is the
nature of the different independent soul but not of 'bhutas'--
the basic elements. From the reasons like the remembrance of the
previous life, it is proved that the soul has come from the other
world.

It is permanent as a dravya (a substance, a reality); but as
parvava or a modification it is a transient, conscious soul.

2. There cannot be only one all-pervasive and motionless soul,
because--

(a) Due to the differences among souls of attachment and
hatred, sensual pleasures and emotions, thoughts and
feelings, auspicious and inauspicious contemplations,
existence of hell-abiders and heavenly beings, there cannot
exist in the universe only one soul but there must be
different souls on account of these different effects.

(b)Since those attributes are perceptible only in the
body, the soul pervades only the body; and

(c)The soul is proved as possessing movement because it is
bhokta (one who experiences karma-fruits) and roaming in
various lives is capable of movements in the four gatis).

3. The soul is both transient and constant

Question: Knowledge being not different from the soul if the
soul is an embodiment of knowledge, then knowledge being of
creative nature, is transient and so the soul also must be
transient . Then whose is the next birth?

Answer If knowledge is different from the soul, the soul can
remain permanent.

Question: But there in this condition, like that of a pure
sky, or like an inanimate wood, where remains the issue of the
next birth, of the pure soul different from knowledge? How can
there be next birth for inanimate wood? In the permanent one if
there is the capacity of doing karmas and experiencing their
fruits, then these may go on always, but it is not so. Therefore,
the soul is not permanent but transient, and when it is
transient, how can there be the next birth?

Answer: In vijnan, let there be creativity, and hence let the
vijnan be transient, but why should it not be permanent also?

Question: Yes. Even in the pot there is not merely transience,
there is also permanence; because what is a pot? It is not merely
a shape but it is an aggregate of colour, taste, smell, touch,
oneness in number, shape of roundness, capacity to contain water.
In the previous clay-bulk also these qualities like colour etc.
existed. Only shape and capacity did not exist. It means that the
pot in the form of colour etc. is not newly created but is
constant; as well as in the form of new shape and capacity it is
created. Here the clay-bulk is destroyed in its shape and
capacity. Same pot is destroyed also in its previous attributes
like blackness etc. In this manner, the pot is proved to be
steady (constant) and also created.

In other words the soul is both transient and constant. In the
same manner, all substances and soul also are proved as steady
and transient. In this position the soul sees cloth after seeing
pot, the soul itself in the form of pot knowledge is lost and in
the form of cloth- knowledge is created and remains steady in the
form of jivatva. In this manner, when a man dies and is born as a
heavenly being he perishes as a human being but is newly created
as a heavenly being. Of course in the form of jivatva, he is
intact. Thus the next birth is logically established and it is
reasonable, relevant, coherent, consistent and reconcilable.

All the 'sat-vastu' (real substances) have the three
attributes viz. utpad (creation), vyaya (destruction), and
dhravya (steadiness); because what is unreal cannot be created;
otherwise the unreal like 'horse-horns' could go on being
created! The real substance can never be destroyed. Otherwise,
gradually, all substances, might be completely destroyed.
Therefore, a substance in a certain form, remains intact in a
certain form and goes on being created in a certain form. The
prince's beloved gold pot had been broken and transformed into
small anklets for the princess. In this the substance gold is the
same, but forms are three. When the same substance as a pot is
lost, the prince's feeling is changed into sadness; and the same
substance as a small anklet is created, the princess' feeling is
changed into joy, and since the sarne substance remains intact as
gold, the king remains neutral in his feelings. The causes of
these three different feelings must be different, and they are
pot, anklet and gold, which must be believed as different and
intermingled in the same substance.

4. If there is no other world, the vedic statements that
prescribe agnihotra etc. for the attainment of heaven, will be
meaningless.

This explanation given by Shri Mahavir Bhagavan removed the
doubts of Metarya and he with his three hundred pupils accepted
charitra diksa at the hands of the Bhagavan.